


No Heart is an Island

by Solovei



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, どうぶつの森 | Animal Crossing Series
Genre: Characters Playing Animal Crossing Game(s), Flirting, Fluff and Crack, Gen, I just wanted to imagine what all their islands would look like and then this happened, I will leave that up to you to figure out, M/M, Polyamory, no idea how this fits into Star Trek Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:28:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24639175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solovei/pseuds/Solovei
Summary: Quadrant Crossing: New Nebula- coming soon. Only for the Nintendo PADD.
Relationships: Elim Garak/Kelas Parmak, Julian Bashir & Kelas Parmak, Julian Bashir/Elim Garak/Kelas Parmak, Julian Bashir/Kelas Parmak
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	No Heart is an Island

A flash of anger, bitter and deep-seated, settled over Elim’s face. “You never respect the work I put into things!” He hissed. 

Julian wasn’t backing down. “Well, YOU don’t respect my process! You know it’s hard for me to--” 

“Honestly, Kelas, are you hearing this? ‘Process’... I’d _like_ to know what you were thinking, actually, yes. What could have possibly driven you to doTHAT!” Here, Elim gestured emphatically at the screen. 

Not the Dominion War, not the Fire and its aftermath, not even the difficulty the three of them had in trying to establish a triad would compare to this. It was a fight for the ages, and not in the fun, sexy way. Caught in the middle, Kelas only offered mute confusion as Elim and Julian both retreated to opposite sides of their quarters in a huff, leaving Kelas sitting alone in the living room, unsure who they should go and reason with first. 

And still, the object of their argument sat on the coffee table in front of Kelas, free for the taking. Sure, they felt… a little guilty, thinking they should really try and comfort either of their partners, or at least try to make them reconcile, but…. It was right there. And it was raining, which meant... 

“Well… just for a few minutes,” Kelas muttered to themself, and pressed the button on the controller until the familiar logo appeared on the screen. “And then I’ll go talk to them.” 

_Quadrant Crossing: New Nebula_ had somehow become one of the most popular games in the Federation. Even people like Kelas, who normally preferred books to interactive entertainment, found themselves playing, drawn in by the relaxing atmosphere and cute characters. It was also currently tearing their household apart.

Elim liked to keep things meticulous - flowers in perfectly arranged rows, planted with the optimal chance of producing rare and sought-after hybrids. Kelas had found them late one night with a PADD, drawing up genetics probability charts. It was very beautiful, really. Anyone could tell that a lot of work had gone into it. 

Julian, on the other hand, could never settle - he would start setting out furniture and pathways only to get distracted by a rare bug or fossil and never return. Half-terraformed areas sat empty, waiting for the day when he would finally decide what kind of staircase he wanted. Amidst Elim’s intricately planned gardens, Julian’s creations loomed like some bizarre art gallery, styles and purposes mixing and matching like a fever dream. He bought the most garish clothes, downloaded ridiculous patterns where Elim had been saving slots for his custom pathways, and painted his house in some offensive combination of colors. 

And Kelas… Kelas just liked to fish. Normally they would have little patience for such amusements, but they had seen Julian playing, and it looked relaxing - the sound of the ocean reminded them of their childhood growing up on the peninsula, waves and wind forming a constant hum that etched itself deep into their ears. The house they had gotten Elim to set up for them stood mostly empty, but they were single-handedly responsible for donating the majority of the museum’s fish. 

After that fight, they pooled their money and got two more consoles, so everyone could have a planet all to themselves. 

\---

“Julian.” 

“Hmm?”

Kelas stood at the door of the study, holding something in their hand. Due to their similar work they shared the space with Julian, but lately their sleep schedules had become so opposite that they were rarely in the room at the same time. 

“That shiny fishing rod you gave me -- it broke.” Kelas said, in such a grave tone of voice that they might as well have delivered the news that someone died.

“Oh.” Julian breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, that happens. Let’s make you a new one.” Julian offered, setting down their PADD.

Kelas walked further into the room, leaning their cane against the bookshelf. “I’m not interrupting?” 

“No, I needed to take a break anyway. Come sit.” Pushing a few of the items to the side, he cleared off a space to jump up onto the desk, vacating the chair so Kelas could sit down and hand him their console. 

Julian saw the way that his partner was watching as he went through the process of gathering ingredients. Was it… interest, or annoyance at having their fishing interrupted? Kelas wasn’t particularly good at crafting or finding resources, so most of the tools and furniture they had were made by either Elim or himself. Plus, it was an open secret in their household that Elim used Kelas’s planet for his massive flower-breeding operation, though Kelas didn’t seem to mind. 

“Alright, I made the base fishing rod, but you don’t have any golden nuggets…” Julian explained, looking up from the screen where he was going through Kelas’s storage. “Have you been hitting the rocks?”

Kelas narrowed their eyes, as if suspecting Julian was playing a joke on them. “Hitting the… is that a Federation expression?” 

“No, the… the rocks in the game?” Julian hopped off the desk and walked around to stand behind Kelas, bending over and resting his outstretched arms on the older Cardassian’s shoulders so he could show them what he was doing. They were a shockingly warm presence in the cold study as Julian demonstrated the trick with digging holes. “If you hit them with your axe or shovel, you can get stuff, like… clay, or iron, or gold sometimes. Or money.”

Kelas frowned, “What do I need money for?” 

Julian heaved a long, internal sigh as he remembered the time he and Elim spent part of an afternoon trying to convince Kelas to sell at least _some_ of the fish they were catching, because all the tanks were making it nearly impossible to walk around.

“Well, the money isn’t important right now, but we do need to get you some gold for this fishing rod. I’ve already gotten all the rocks for today, let me see… how many parsecs do you have… oh yeah, okay, we can do a few tours, hopefully we’ll get lucky…” 

It was nice, Julian thought as he continued to narrate his actions, almost on autopilot. Kelas never stopped him in his babbling, no matter what it was about; it was a trait he and Elim shared, and Julian was delighted to have such a receptive and patient audience. Sometimes he would open a comm channel with Elim when either of them was at work and just go on about how he wasn’t sure what color to paint this table, his monologue only punctuated by small noises of interest and occasional aesthetic advice from the Cardassian. Kelas too genuinely seemed interested in the optimal hole placement and timing required to get that elusive (and oft-debated) ninth hit, even though they both knew the next time this would happen they would come to Julian again for help. Still. Nice. 

It took another half an hour for Julian to acquire the gold needed to produce Kelas’ shiny fishing rod. At the end of it all, he positively beamed with accomplishment. After having been fruitlessly poking at his research data since dinner, it was nice to have seen at least this small thing to completion. 

“Aaand there we go. This one should last you a little while. I also made some extras of the normal ones so you have backups.” He explained, handing Kelas back the device. 

“Ah. Thank you, Julian. I am in your debt once again.” Kelas said, slipping it into the pocket of their cardigan with a wink. 

“It’s really not a big deal, Kelas.” 

“Mm. Well. I’d like to pay you back anyway.”

“Oh? Um, well I’m actually missing the rainbow trout--”

Kelas fixed Julian with a look, a very specific look. It was different from the look Elim had given him nearly 10 years ago at the replimat, and yet it had an undeniably similar meaning.

Julian opened his mouth to say something, but Kelas only moved closer, putting a clawed finger to his lips. “Finish your work. Then come to bed.” They said, their voice husky.

\---

Elim Garak was good at many things, but in recent years he found that much of his knowledge had little application to his current life. Still, not wanting to lose the skills he had honed, he tried to apply them in a new context. Namely, making the lives of his partners more interesting. 

He was washing up after breakfast when he spied Julian’s bewildered look from across the table, squinting at the game from under unruly bed-mussed curls. It was the look he got when he was presented with a problem that didn’t have an immediately obvious solution - interesting, but frustrating. 

“Problem, my dear?”

“No, it’s… I got this letter. Is it some kind of new event?” Julian muttered, just as Elim set down the cup he was washing and came around to look. 

The letter was written on cute, heart-printed stationery. Rather than the usual chatter from the residents or a message from the in-game shopping service, or even Ezri’s daily pun, the letter contained only the words “find me if you can”, followed by a series of letters and numbers. 

“ ‘To Julian,’” Elim read out, scanning the screen, “From… What does that say at the bottom? TL?”

“Right, but. I don’t have anyone on my friends list named that.”. 

“That is most puzzling. What do you suppose the contents mean?” Elim mused, returning to his dishes. 

“I guess it could be a glitch, but - oh wait, there’s an item attached? It’s….” he pressed a few buttons and Elim could hear the sound effect of the menu opening up. “Huh. It’s an apple.”

“Seems like a fairly pedestrian gift.” 

Julian drank the last of his tea and carried the empty cup back to the sink, console precariously grasped in his other hand. “Well, I’m sure it’s nothing'' he said, giving the letter one last look before stealing a kiss and heading off to the bathroom to get dressed.

Elim smirked at the soapy water. Of course, Julian will attempt to carry on with work and not think about the mystery of the letter, but it will keep nagging at him like a splinter. He will keep trying to solve the puzzle, jotting down the code on this or that scrap from memory, turning it around in and around in his augmented brain.

With the dishes finished, Elim went to grab his own console, first to check on his gardens and deal with any stray flowers that have sprouted out of place overnight. He mailed a few interesting-looking furniture items to Kelas, and had finished the weeding up on the cliffs, but after that - well, the _real_ game had just begun. Julian had taken the bait, and Elim knew he would want more before long. 

He pulled out some old cryptography manuals and set about devising the next bit of the puzzle.

Just after lunch, Elim’s communicator started to chime. Right on schedule.

“You’re not going to believe this - I got another letter! From TL!” Julian’s excited voice said through the comm. “I know I said the first one wasn’t important, but I was sequencing some DNA earlier and I noticed a pattern that reminded me of that first set of letters and numbers and I thought, if I analyze it like it’s--”

Elim smiled warmly, though he knew Julian couldn’t see it. “So, are you any closer to figuring out the mystery, then?”

“Oh, I’m definitely hot on the trail. I’m sure I’ll have it solved by dinnertime.” 

“I look forward to hearing all about it then. You know Kelas is cooking tonight.”

On the other end, Julian laughed, like the pure chime of a bell. “A mystery to solve, and Dr. Parmak’s famous culinary skills? This promises to be an excellent day already.”

Elim smirked, in a way he _knew_ Julian could hear over the comm. “Oh I’m sure I could find some way to make it better still.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Okay I tried to do as much as I could to keep the tech at least somewhat in line with Star Trek, but lets be real, if ACNH actually came out in the 23rd Century it would probably be a hologram thing and you could like, hug all your villagers or whatever.
> 
> So basically it's that weird Irish town they made up for themselves on Voyager.
> 
> P.S. bonus points if you spotted a super super tiny A Stitch In Time reference.


End file.
